ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 6, 1996 TAG: 9602060094
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
ONCE AGAIN, a member of the media has tried to portray the Republican Party as a racist organization. As a black man who is a member of the Republican Party and also a candidate for public office, I found your Jan 28. political cartoon titled ``Solid South'' insulting.
There are members of the Democratic Party who are racist. I know them firsthand. There are Democrats who know and freely use the term ``nigger.'' I've heard this myself on far too many occasions. And I've seen the Democratic Party play the race card like a fine violinist plays a Stradivarius in order to win votes and elections, best illustrated in our last General Assembly elections.
The Democratic Party plays the black community for suckers, taking blacks for granted at every turn and only caring for them in an election year. Yet no one calls this racism.
Of course, it's racism of the worst kind, supported by those who feel black people are somehow totally indebted to the Democratic Party for civil rights while forgetting the lynchings, beatings, bombings and other terrorist tactics, as well as the political ploy, used today by the Democratic Party, of being ``friendly'' with the black community as long as this friendliness doesn't upset other political constituents.
The next time someone tries to portray the Republican Party as a group of racists, perhaps you should check your history books. The Republican Party isn't perfect, but the Democratic Party hasn't cornered the market on racial equality either. Just ask Jesse Jackson or Doug Wilder.
JEFF ARTIS
ROANOKE
Forces of darkness are closing in
OF LATE, you have printed some letters to the editor critical of your editorial board's social and political philosophies. As one of your supporters so astutely observed not long ago, if people don't like The Roanoke Times, they can always get their local, national and international news, sports, business reports and comics from Rush Limbaugh.
Keep fighting the good fight! Who knows, you may be able to hold back the forces of darkness that, judging from the results of the last national and state elections, are even now closing in on us.
ALBERT BIRD JR.
CHRISTIANSBURG
`Diverse' lifestyles threaten the future
``DIVERSITY Enriches.'' Let's delve into this more.
Recently, l watched a news conference from New York. Being interviewed were two lesbians. The women stated they were "married" and wanted to have a family. Therefore, a male donor was found, and they made a step toward making their own family. Each woman delivered a girl from the same sperm donor.
At the news conference, one of the women stated that the girls were sisters. One was approximately 3 years old and the other was a few months older. The older child was asked by her mother how many mommies she had. The child responded that she had two.
God created man and woman. Woman cannot procreate without the man or the man without the woman. To create a family with "two mommies" is unnatural indeed, and we have no right to create other individuals to bring into a perverse lifestyle.
We should treat all people with kindness and we should love them. However, that doesn't mean we should embrace their unnatural values. We must think of our future generation, and what we want our children to be exposed to for it to be a healthy generation - mentally and physically.
JENNIFER BROWN
SALEM
Need for power line is real and critical
NOW WE have a ruling from Virginia's State Corporation Commission on the American Electric Power (formerly Appalachian Power Co.) 765-kilovolt power line. The project, the SCC determined, is based on need, not greed.
For more than two years, our coalition of power-line supporters has maintained there's a need, and we're glad to have the SCC confirm our position. And the need is critical "to prevent severe degradations in service reliability," said the SCC.
The SCC also looked at all alternatives and concluded this 765-kv line was the best choice. It specifically looked at generation and found that option to be infeasible for many reasons, including cost, lack of sites and the fact that any generation would still require a new transmission line.
At the end of the long approval process awaits a $250 million construction project with not only 680 four-year construction jobs, but 1,500 to 3,600 permanent jobs to be created by this project in West Virginia and Virginia. The total economic impact will be from $140 million to $340 million yearly!
Now is the time to support this essential infrastructure project.
WALTER W. WISE
Member of the Coalition for Energy and Economic Revitalization
ROANOKE
LENGTH: Medium: 92 linesby CNB